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It's too bad that my inability to properly harness my computer's full power has morphed this thread into the subject of what an idiot I am. I was enjoying it up until now, but it seems like everyone's been scared away.

I've been watching the commentary on Fellowship of the Ring. I started with the designer commentary, and finished that up last night, now I"m going to do the designer commentary on Two Towers. Then back to FOTR to start another commentary. I might have enough time to finish them up before the 17th.

But as for the designer commentary: John Howe comes across as really cool. You can really tell he knows his stuff. I enjoyed all his comments (even though he repeats himself and rambles from time to time)

Unfortunately Richard Taylor (head of WETA I think) is like Will Ferrell's character on Weekend update, "I WAS BORN WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO MODULATE THE VOLUME OF MY VOICE. OH, MY GOD! WHAT DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT WHAT I JUST SAID? THIS IS ME WHISPERING. THIS IS ME SHOUTING. NOW, I'M SINGING. DOES THIS SOUND LIKE A PLEASURABLE WAY TO LIVE?"

SO YEAH....er...so yeah, I shudder each time he comes on. I think he's even louder on the TT discs. *shudder*

"Your imagination, like a child, will explode with unrestrained possibilities for adventure."

Cannibal The Musical! Trey Parker, Matt Stone and friends all sit around getting drunk while watching it. Absolutely hilarous!!! You just cannot beat this commentary. Getting the dvd for this alone is worth it.

I finally got around to watching this the other night. I think it had been built up too much by other people who saw it before I did. It was funny, but I wasn't too impressed. I don't know.

Another good commentary that I've listened to since the last time I've posted on this thread is the Jon Favreau/Vince Vaughn commentary on the Swingers rerelease. Vince keeps calling Jon "the Favs" and Jon laments how fat he has gotten (he has, too; go watch Elf and Something's Gotta Give). It's almost as fun as watching the movie.

I just bought the Criterion release of Schizopolis, and am really looking forward to hearing the Soderbergh interviewing Soderbergh commentary. You know, I really don't listen to all that many commentaries, but it sure sounds like I do here. Oh well.

The Simpson's commentaries are all good (when they're not giving themselves credit for coming up with every good idea ever or when Julie Kavner's not talking). The commentaries on both the original Criterion release of Spinal Tap (with the actors commenting out-of-character0 and the re-release with the band commenting in-character are both a riot. An equally funny commentary if you enjoy awkward silence is Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Imagine Tim Burton and Paul Ruebens struggling to make conversation for 2 hours.

dTheater wrote:The Simpson's commentaries are all good (when they're not giving themselves credit for coming up with every good idea ever or when Julie Kavner's not talking). The commentaries on both the original Criterion release of Spinal Tap (with the actors commenting out-of-character0 and the re-release with the band commenting in-character are both a riot. An equally funny commentary if you enjoy awkward silence is Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Imagine Tim Burton and Paul Ruebens struggling to make conversation for 2 hours.

Yeah, I love the Criterion Spinal Tap, but, since I own that one, I've never bought the other one with the in-character commentary, despite the fact that it sounds like it would be really cool. I hate to be so stuck up Criterion's ass, but they pretty much always seem to get good commentaries on their discs; I guess they are just the best at knowing who would be the best for the job. I can't think of a single Criterion commentary that I haven't liked, though. Not that I've listened to all of them or anything.

And, despite being a huge Simpsons fan, I've never listened to any of the commentaries for even a single episode, because, until now, I've never heard anything about them except for how boring they are. I don't know. Aside from that, the urge to listen to one has just never really struck me all that hard. If I see a movie I like I usually want to know as much as I can about it, but when I see the Simpsons, I would much rather watch the show again than listen to some people ramble on about it. I don't know what the difference is, but it's there.

sirhansirhan wrote:Here is a picture of a bowl of a chicken soft taco:

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You know, every time I come back to this thread to read someone's post or to add my own, I always see this one, and think, "A bowl of a chicken soft taco? What?" Even I don't know what I was talking about. At least all of the burrito business kind of made sense.

Pretty good stuff. The commentaries with the creator of B5 are great. He is very insightful, witty and self deprecating at times. You will learn a ton about the show by listening to them. The Cast commentaries are a completely different animal: controlled chaos. Typically one member will vainly attempt to comment on the shooting involved with particular scenes. Most others just make fun of each other.

Just started the Underworld Commentary with the writers and director. Pretty good stuff about the rigors of shooting in the cold, the rain and on a limited budget.

It's been like a month since I've listened to it now, but I forgot to ever say anything in the first place: I listened to the Carrot Top commentary on the Rules of Attraction DVD. I think this idea is hilarious (it sounds as if Carrot Top had never even seen the movie before when he recorded the commentary), and Carrot Top is just kitschy enough to pull it off, but it really was pretty much a waste of time. He spent most of the running time silent, and only ever seemed to talk if he felt it necessary to say how hot one of the female cast members were. Even so, I'd like to see more "prank" commentaries like this in the future. Hopefully they'll work out better some time down the line.